the essential guard

I was just in the bookstore flipping through "the essential guard." I only had time to look at it in the store, but it seemed like it was all very basic stuff, nor did there seem to be enough detail to warrant picking up something new about the technique. I ended up picking up eddie bravo's book instead. I think peligro just wanted to put another book out.

I really like his work with JJ Machado (Championship Techniques has great drills) and his book with Royce (I can't wait for Vol. 2)

Otherwise, his other books seem kinda frivolous to me...they're all well-written and organized, but they seem to recycle a lot of the same information/techniques, but with different people showing them and different "stories" at the beginning of each book...

I read through it on Friday at Borders, and will be purchasing it at some point. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good in my opinion. I already know a lot of the material, but the advice on regaining guard from various attempted guard passes alone is worth it.

From what I saw, it has the simple kind of information that will really help to internalize what your hands, arms, feet, and legs should be doing at all times.

The higher belts that have recommended it to me have all said that it has really helped tighten their games up, even though it didn't add any new amazing techniques to their arsenals.

For me, that's the best kind of grappling reference.

"No. Listen to me because I know what I'm talking about here." -- Hannibal

See, I'm not gonna put down 20 to 30 bucks for someone to tell me how to do the basics. Thats what my instructor is for. If I buy a book, I want the **** that my instructor HASN'T covered and The Essential Guard just didn't have that.

I'll take basics over novel techniques (which is what most instructionals and books I've read come down to) any day. The only time I try to get novel is with new setups for old techniques. Otherwise, I'd rather just play boring basic jiu-jitsu.

The Essential Guard is excellent in that I can pick it up 5 hours after class if I'm going over a guard recovery technique in my head and have a question about it. That's why I called it a Reference. If I want a new technique, I'll go to class. If I want to mentally review a technique, I'll look in a book or watch an instructional.

I'll pick new things up from books and instructionals every once and awhile, but I get more mileage out of tournament footage (Pan Ams, Mundials, etc) for that kind of thing, honestly.

"No. Listen to me because I know what I'm talking about here." -- Hannibal

I'm just starting up with BJJ again after a few years and having a reference book might be helpful. What else would you more experienced people suggest?

For simple REFERENCE as in something with basics that you probably already know, Theory & Techniques by Royler and Renzo and Submission Grappling by Royler are pretty hard to pass up if you can find them for cheap. Don't expect to find anything groundbreaking, but I probably still consult them both once a week just to refresh the odd technique in my head. Supposedly JJ Machado's books are great, but I don't own them. They're on my "to purchase" list.

I second Garbanzo Beans choice in Judo books and I will add Best Judo by Isao Inokuma, the section on combination techniques is basic and well described with sound progression.................but being good at grappling is doing the basics really well.

The noobs, like myself, don't do much in the way of stand-up. As far as basics go, there's probably a lot of stuff in there that I don't know, or at least don't know very well. I'm still pretty green at grappling; despite loads of theoretical knowledge on how joints work and how to tweek them and how physics works in regards to throwing people, executing it is another matter entirely. And I've just injured my back putting me out of training for a week :sad: